The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Oregon State University's College of Pharmacy is made up of a dynamic cadre of biomedical scientists committed to advancing health care through scholarly research, graduate education and professional education of pharmacists. Over the past several years, faculty members in the department have strategically worked to develop specific strengths in biomedical research. These efforts effectively focus the utilization of college resources and maximize the impact of scholarly achievements.
The Infectious Disease Initiative takes advantage of specific faculty strengths in the natural products/medicinal chemistry group. This initiative has judiciously positioned college faculty for leadership positions in similar drug discovery efforts across the university and, more recently, statewide. A second focused area of scholarship—using genetic modification to design models of disease—has similarly emerged utilizing departmental expertise in the mechanisms of intracellular control. Faculty understanding of how the human body alters drug action drives a third area of scholarship, revealing some challenges presented by drug metabolism and some opportunities for novel techniques of drug delivery. Extensive collaboration within and outside the college assures that discoveries in the laboratory have a strong potential to influence the future of patient care.
Faculty members of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences have chosen to explore these critical areas of biomedical research within a college of pharmacy because they are committed to education. In graduate education, they are the role models shaping perspectives of developing scientists. In professional education, their scholarship brings immediacy and an excitement for learning to the next generation of pharmacy professionals. The intellectual foundation and model of lifelong learning provided by departmental faculty instills in all students a capacity to comprehend, adapt and apply emerging biomedical discoveries throughout their careers.
Gary E. DeLander, department chair
College of Pharmacy
